Marta Andreasen, UKIP’s budget spokesman, has slammed the European Parliament for agreeing to provide a £500 taxpayer- funded iPad for every one of its 736 MEPs – despite recently providing them all with state-of-the-art laptops.

Administrators in the European Parliament’s bureau have earmarked £4.3m for an ‘IT mobility project’ that will provide the politicians with the highly sought after new tablet computer, which MEPs have said will be easier to transport than their new laptops.

Mrs Andreasen said: “We were told the iPads would actually cut costs as they are not expensive and that we would be able to stay connected while outside the office or on holidays, but many of the older MEPs don’t even know how to use the internet properly.

“I am against that because it seems completely unnecessary, especially when European taxpayers are facing such difficult times.”

Meanwhile British taxpayers are also forking out for a new building to house the European Central Bank headquarters. Even while the Euro staggers towards a complete collapse and European economies approach rock bottom, mindless Eurocrats will spend £740m on the 600ft Frankfurt offices.

Building work began last week on a structure that Architect Wolf Prix has said will be “an icon of the European Union because of its complex geometry”.

But Mats Persson, director of the Open Europe think tank, said: “It’s mind-boggling that the ECB is going ahead with such a grand project only weeks after taxpayers were asked to cough up €500 billion to save the eurozone.”